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[34]

Many conjectures have been hazarded as to who the
Erembi were: they who suppose the Arabs are intended, seem
to deserve the most credit.

Our Zeno reads the passage thus:—
“
I came to the Ethiopians, the Sidonians, and the Arabians.

”

But there is no occasion to tamper with the text, which is of
great antiquity; it is a far preferable course to suppose a
change in the name itself, which is of frequent and ordinary
occurrence in every nation: and in fact certain grammarians
establish this view by a comparison of the radical letters.
Posidonius seems to me to adopt the better plan after all, in
looking for the etymology of names in nations of one stock and
community; thus between the Armenians, Syrians, and Arabians there is a strong affinity both in regard to dialect, mode
of life, peculiarities of physical conformation, and above all
in the contiguity of the countries. Mesopotamia, which is a
motley of the three nations, is a proof of this; for the similarity amongst these three is very remarkable. And though in
consequence of the various latitudes there may be some difference between those who dwell in the north1 and those of the
the south,2 and again between each of these and the inhabitants of the middle region,3 still the same characteristics are dominant in all. Also the Assyrians and Arians have a great
affinity both to these people and to each other. And [Posidonius] believes there is a similarity in the names of these
different nations. Those whom we call Syrians style themselves Armenians and Arammæans, names greatly like those of
the Armenians, Arabs, and Erembi. Perhaps this [last] term
is that by which the Greeks anciently designated the Arabs;
the etymon of the word certainly strengthens the idea. Many
deduce the etymology of the Erembi from ἔρανἐμ<*>αίνειν, (to go
into the earth,) which [they say] was altered by the people of a
later generation into the more intelligible name of Troglodytes,4
by which are intended those Arabs who dwell on that side of
the Arabian Gulf next to Egypt and Ethiopia. It is probable
then that the poet describes Menelaus as having visited these
people in the same way that he says he visited the Ethiopians;
for they are likewise near to the Thebaid; and he mentions them
not on account of any commerce or gain, (for of these there
was not much,) but probably to enhance the length of the
journey and his meed of praise: for such distant travelling
was highly thought of. For example,—

“
Discover'd various cities, and the mind
And manners learn'd of men in lands remote.5

”

Odyssey i. 3.

And again:

“
After numerous toils
And perilous wanderings o'er the stormy deep,
In the eighth year at last I brought them home.6

”

Odyssey iv. 81.

Hesiod, in his Catalogue,7 writes,
“And the daughter of Arabus, whom gracious Hermes and Thronia,
descended from king Belus, brought forth.”
Thus, too, says Stesichorus. Whence it seems that at that
time the country was from him named Arabia, though it is
not likely this was the case in the heroic period.8

8 This derivation of Arabia is as problematical as the existence of the
hero from whom it is said to have received its name; a far more probable
etymology is derived from ereb, signifying the west, a name supposed to
have been conferred upon it at a very early period by a people inhabiting
Persia.

The Geography of Strabo. Literally translated, with notes, in three volumes. London. George Bell & Sons. 1903.

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